Eddie Murphy

Sad, and true: the Skipper’s “little buddy,” Bob Denver – who also starred, unforgettably, as Maynard G. Krebs in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis – died. Seven years ago this week, as it turns out. Didn’t remember that? You’re not alone: “news” of his death, reposted and re-tweeted breathlessly with the requisite comments of social media mourning – such as “RIP, Gilligan!” “Another part of my childhood gone” etc. – spread via Facebook and Twitter this week as if he had …

Tony Scott directed 16 films, including the Tom Cruise hits Top Gun and Days of Thunder, but he got little of the critical acclaim showered on Hollywood contemporaries such as Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and Steven Spielberg. Accolade-wise, he even was overshadowed by his older brother Ridley, whose trio of Academy Award nominations in the best director category amounted to three more than Tony ever got. But Scott, who died yesterday at age 68 in an apparent suicide in Los Angeles, had stellar success in …